1 1/2 C cocoa powder (must be .05g Fat or less per serving) I used Hershey’s special Dark

HOW TO:

Pre Heat oven to 350°F

Stir all ingredients together, preferably with a stand mixer or hand mixer

Line a 1/4 sheet cake pan with foil and spray with non stick spray, or line extra large cupcake pan with liners (you will want to divide this recipe into 12 servings for these macros) or you could make 24 regular size muffin tin depending on your needs

Bake until springy to the touch, approximately 49 minutes for the cake sheet or 30 minutes for the muffin pans. They should be slgiggly fudgey in the center since they will continue to “bake” as they cool.

I don’t really have much witty commentary here, since I am nearing the end of my cut and am cranky lol. Here’s a recipe for cheese sauce that’s lower calorie and lower fat. I used it kist recently for mac and cheese with salmon but you can put your own spin on it!

1 1/4 C Fat free Milk

1 C chicken stock

3 Tbl all purpose flour (I used white whole wheat flour)

1 1/3 C 2% skim milk cheddar cheese (get it at wegmans!)

salt and pepper to taste

HOW TO:

whisk 3 Tbl of flour together with 1/4 C of FF milk in a sauce pan, and slowly heat until a thick roux forms

add remaining milk, and chicken stock and whisk over low heat until mixture is smooth and starts to thicken (congrats you’ve just made béchamel, aren’t you fancy!)

stir in cheese (You could also use fat free cheese here), and stir until molted and smooth

at this point you may choose to use a hand or sticker immersion blender to really help smooth things out, fat free cheeses tend to be a bit grainy in general so this may be helpful although unneccesary

season to your taste with salt and pepper, and serve however you like!

For a slight variation, use mozzarella cheese and parmesan and add fresh or powdered garlic for a really good alfredo sauce!

As some of you know, especially my instagram followers, I do some food prep for Dr. Mike Israetel of Renaissance Periodization. It’s super challenging coming up with delicious foods that fit within his macros, (And also weirdo food aversions, but I won’t call him out here lol).

What I enjoy most each week though is experimenting with low fat dessert recipes, tweaking existing recipes of mine with lower fat options and researching substitutions for this and that. The experiments are not always successful, but sometimes what we end up with is a keeper!

Certainly the case with these Pumpkin donuts. I must say it would hardly be possible without his carb allowance to create some of these recipes, and I have yet to come up with many recipes that are low carb, low fat and low cal without them tasting like bricks dipped in Splenda haha.

On a side note it’s quite simple to pick up a box cake mix and sub out several ingredients and still have a successful dessert. Try Greek yogurt for oil, egg whites for eggs (2:1), apple sauce for oil, or pumpkin for eggs and oil (equal ratio) less simple is substituting sugar as it’s not only responsible for sweetness, but also structure and texture in most recipes.

For the more adventurous baker:

Pumpkin Donuts

1.75 C White whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 C brown sugar

3/4 pumpkin purée

1/2 C fat free milk

4 egg whites

Pre heat oven to 425°F

Mix all dry ingredients together

Whisk all wet ingredients together and add to dry ingredients

Fold all together either by hand, or with a hand mixer

Spray your donut pan with pan release spray liberally

Fill pan 3/4 full with batter, this mix will make 18 donuts in a medium size donut pan (see pic for size reference)

Bake about 7-9 minutes until puffed and lightly brown

Toss in cinnamon sugar while still slightly warm

Repeat with batter as needed, depending on number of donut pans you have 🙂

I generally don’t get much into meal prep for a couple of reasons. One is that I’m more likely to make better decisions about my food if I get to eat something I’m “in the mood” for, and another is that I really don’t have time, space, motivation to pack a bunch of little containers to carry around with me.

I do have my own form of meal prep that I do on a weekly basis however. I will gather up a few produce items and roast them and clean and marinate some proteins so they are easy to cook when I get home late from the gym. This is especially great during grilling season (yay summer!) where you can pretty much count on any piece of meat with oil salt and pepper being pretty tasty.

Another item I make during my “Sunday cookin'”(say this with a nice thick philly brogue) is roasted sweet potatoes. Easy peasy post training carb without a lot of fuss. They last a full week in the fridge and they are super easy to heat up either on the grill in foil or in a pan on the stove. The other nice thing about this is I only have to have my oven on once for the whole week during the summer heat. You could certainly go the plain route and wrap them in foil and roast them whole, but this is a super tasty option that we like best.

It’s not so much a recipe as a “to taste” kinda thing:

2 Japanese sweet potatoes (sub regular as well)

Skin on, sliced into 1/2″ rounds

Avocado oil (spray is easiest!)

Turmeric, chili powder, cinnamon, sea salt

Foil lined baking sheet

Spray the baking sheet with oil and lay sweet potato slices into one flat layer. Don’t crowd them so they have room to get crispy all around.

Spray the tops of the potato slices with avocado oil, as sprinkle generously with all your spices. You could also do ginger, allspice, dried herbs, etc.)

Roast at 375° F for around 12 minutes until the bottoms are golden brown.

Flip at this point to crispy the other side of the potatoes and roast until golden brown and slightly crisp on both sides.

Pro tip: if you let them get really crispy you are actually eating sweet potato fries haha

Hey guys! haven’t posted in a loooonnng time… Since getting the the all clear to head back to work and training, I’ve been pretty busy. But Im making it a goal of mine to keep this blog active!

Training is going well, and I’m happy to report my brown belt blues are finally over. Did anyone else experience that mourning period when you were just a good purple belt, and then suddenly a new (crappy???) brown belt!? It took bit for me to adjust especially coming back from an injury, but I’m starting to have more good days than bad.

In that same vein, I definitely spent the better part of the holidays over- indulging in not so good for me foods and have since put on a few extra pounds… and like all good New Years Resolutions, mine lasted about 2 days haha. Still trying to combat some of my all or nothing behavior by shooting for that 80/20 goal and I have been eating much better and watching my calorie intake to get back into better shape before the summer.

No real set goals yet, but I hope to compete in both Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu this coming year, so long as the shoulder holds out!

ok enough about me, here is a yummy grain free granola recipe i made for breakfast:

add the nuts to the bowl of a flood processor and pulse until mealy but not too fine

combine all the dry ingredients with nut into a large bowl and stir

melt the coconut oil, add sweeteners to liquid oil

pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir to coat

spread the granola mixture out onto a sheet tray and bake at 350F until golden brown

note: this is not super crunchy like “normal” granola, but it does have some good texture

note 2: this is for sure a recipe where you can toss in what you have! dried fruit, different nuts, anything will work really. you just need enough fat and “sugar”(maple syrup, honey etc.) to hold it together I recommend a ratio of 5 C dry ingredients to 1 C fats and sweeteners

I usually don’t try out too many “clean eating” dessert recipes. I’m more of the school of thought that if you are going to have a treat, have a piece and move on. Of course, I rarely have just ONE piece when it comes to pumpkin pie.

The other thing about creating dessert recipes is that you usually don’t find out if it’s any good until after about 45 minutes of trying not to peek into the oven. No matter how much you may understand the principles of baking, there is so much trial and error that goes into manipulating ingredients that the task seems daunting, even to a professional.

Luckily for you I’ve already done the hard part and you get to reap the benefits! Just don’t get used to too many “diety” dessert recipes from me, I’ve got training to do. 😉

In this recipe I use coconut palm sugar, but you could substitute equal ratios of Splenda baking blend, erythritol and sugar, or white sugar if you aren’t concerned with those things. Also this filling would work well in a while wheat or white pre made crust.

Pumpkin Pie (gluten free, refined sugar free, paleo, low carb)

Spray a 10″ pie pan with nonstick spray

In the bowl of a food processor combine:

1 Cup pecans, halves

1 Cup walnuts, halves

1/2 Cup almond flour

1/4 C flax seeds

3 Tbl coconut oil, melted

4 Tbl coconut palm sugar
Process all ingredients until a smooth paste forms. Press but mixture into pie pan (wet your fingers to help keep it from sticking to your hands), bringing mixture evenly up the sides and bottom. Freeze crust for 1 hour before filling.

Preheat oven to 325°F

For filling:

2 Cups pumpkin purée (I used fresh, but a 15oz can is fine)

1/2 C full fat coconut milk

3 large eggs

4 Tbl coconut palm sugar

3 Tbl maple syrup

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger ground

1/2 tsp all spice

1/2 tsp nutmeg
Whisk together all ingredients together until smooth, and pour into prepared crust (which is now frozen).

Place pie into the oven and bake at 325°F for approximately (ovens vary) 40 minutes until pumpkin filling goes from shiny to opaque. The outter rim of the pumpkin towards the crust will start to look slightly stretched, but not “puffy”.

Here is a quick recipe to save you a few bucks on your favorite Apple Cider Vinegar Drink. My version has a few more calories and grams of carbs, but I also like the addition of the apple juice to cover some of the aftertaste you may experience from the stevia.

I love fall. And much to my embarrassment am the first one in line for pumpkin spice anything as soon as September 1st rolls around. Even during the 90° weather I’ve been known to turn the AC up higher so I can turn on the fire place and pull out the plaid throw blanket.

I also love middle eastern food. It’s most definitely my favorite food to eat and lately some of my favorite things to cook. I recently bought a Tagine so I’ve been playing around with that and those flavors more and more.

Isnt she gorgeous?

The other day when we had friends over for dinner I got to combine my love of fall and middle eastern flavors by coming up with this Pumpkin Hummus. Ironically one of the guests hates all things Pumpkin related, but didn’t have anything bad to say about this. (Which if you know James is saying a lot) but I digress.

Purée all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. Let the hummus blend for several minutes to ensure a smooth finished quality. Season to your taste and serve with pita, pita chips or fresh veggies for dipping. In the picture I garnished with pumpkin seeds and white and black sesame seeds and a bit of cinnamon. Drizzled with olive oil to finish.

So I meant to write this post yesterday, but honestly the training bug bit me and I just couldn’t resist it. You guys get it.

Full disclosure My husband and I don’t really like fish. I eat it because it’s healthy, and because you’re hard pressed to find a lower calorie lower fat and higher protein well… Protein.

We are trying to expand our seafood horizons by trying new varieties but I usually stick to tilapia and try to season it to make it as unfishy as possible.

Also there is plenty of controversy surrounding Tilapia and how it’s raised. All I can offer is it is up to you to research these things and if you are in any way unformfortable eating it, feel free to substitute a different fish.

This recipe may seem a little daunting at first since it sounds so fancy. Keep in mind that translated from French it means “in a paper bag”, and the method, though a little tedious, is actually quite simple. It’s also very easy to substitute these ingredients based on what you have on hand. You do however need parchment paper which I find most non bakers don’t keep around. It is readily available at the supermarket.

Tilapia en Papillote aka Fancy Fish

Recipe Yield: 4 packets (this could feed 4 people with another side dish for sure) but on its own I’d say two servings)

4 Tilapia Filets around 3-4 oz each

1 lb fresh green beans, cleaned

1 shallot, sliced thin

1 lemon, zest and juice

Kosher salt

Black pepper

Mix beans with sliced shallot, zest and juice and seaon with salt and pepper

Garnish:

1 fresh tomato, diced

1/2 C kalamata olives, halves

4 tsp drained capers

4 tsp basil, chopped

4 lemon halves
For sauce:

4Tbl balsamic vinegar

2tsp whole grain mustard

2 Tbl olive oil

1Tbl honey

2tsp parsley minced (I have totally used dried parsley as well)

Whisk all the sauce ingredients together until combined

in the pic you see two lemons halved. i threw thise on the grill while cooking the fish

Preheat Oven to 400°F or Fire up the gril on medium high heat.

To assemble

Cut sheets of Parchment paper into circles around 4 times the size of your fish filet it should be large enough that once your fish and veggies are placed in the center to can cover over it with any side

Spray the parchment paper with non stick spray or brush with olive oil.

Place green bean mix in the center of 4 payments circles

Top with tilapia, and seaon the fish with salt and pepper

Top fish with tomatoes, capers, olives and sprinkle with basil

Top each stack with 1/4 of the sauce

The hardest part is wrapping the fish in the paper, so I made a video instead of trying to explain it via text

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To Cook: This method essentially steams the packet. The heat creates steam which fills up the bag, and cooks the fish and veg delicatley.

For the Oven:

Bake at 400°F on a baking sheet about 12-15 minutes. The paper will be brown and crispy so don’t worry!

For the grill:

wrap the paper pouches in foil the same way you wrapped the fish in paper

Preheat the grill to medium high and place fish on the grill

Cook 12-15 minutes (maybe longer based on your grill)

Allow the packets to rest a few minutes before cutting open. If you’re having carbs on the side this would be awesome with roasted potatoes which you could have in the oven at the same time.